Staying Dry
Scientists used to think that surface areas stay dry best if droplets of the liquid recoil symmmetrically before bouncing off. However, in a paper published in Nature, a team of researchers show that an asymmetrical recoil can make droplets bounce away faster. The Cambridge team used a water-repellent material with a twist. They added tiny ridges only 0.1 millimetres high, and these ridges forced the liquid to splash asymmetrically. This way, it bounced off the material quicker, faster than was previously thought possible.